Poetic Debate in the Abbasid Court (The Aesthetics of Competition and Its Impact on the Development of Poetry)

Abstract

Abstract

Baghdad was the center of the Abbasid Caliphate and a destination for scholars and writers during one of the most distinguished periods in Islamic history. Science, literature, and art flourished there, and poetic debates became a distinctive phenomenon during that period. The research aims to study poetic debate in the texts of the great poets of the Abbasid era and the princes of poetry known to the Abbasid courts, and whose artistic work dominated the model of effective poetry among the audience, especially that which was associated with heroism and confrontation with opponents. The importance of the research in studying poetic debate in the Abbasid era is evident through examining the aesthetics of competition between opponents and its impact on the development of the poem through the use of mechanisms of dialogue, imagination and symbolism. Debate is a linguistic discourse conducted in natural language, an intellectual dialogue between two conflicting parties, addressing a specific topic, and aiming to influence and convince the listeners. It is a persuasive discourse through which the words of argument and debate exchange positions in some words, where one of the parties raises the problem, so the opponent seeks to invalidate it, and this is done with argument and proof. The debate takes place in the presence of a judge who is knowledgeable in the science of theology, and the foundations of debate, its rules, conditions and etiquette. The debate ends with the silence of one of the parties when defeated or confused, or with the intervention of the judge to resolve the debate. If one party is obstinate, despite the invalidity of their argument, the most common of these topics relates to heroism and chivalry. These are among the most prominent manifestations of dialogue in ancient Arabic literature. Dialogue sessions were held, known as "debates." Abu Firas's debate with his cousin Sayf al-Dawla is one of the most symbolic imaginative debates that has occupied a significant space in productive reading. It has become a model for alluding to the pain inflicted on the hero during his captivity after his leader abandons him. The study was conducted using a descriptive and analytical approach; by tracing the mechanisms of debate in poetic texts, describing and analyzing their meaning, and revealing the text's implications and artistic symbols upon which the knight poet built his debate.